Supervisor Melinda Wormuth on Wednesday said she had no role in the town clerk's recent decision not to release a letter in which a developer claimed he was asked to pay the town $399,000 to get his plans for a medical facility on the Town Board's agenda.

Wormuth said she never spoke to the town's clerk, Lynda Bryan, about a Freedom of Information Law request filed by a resident, Deanna Stephenson, to obtain a copy of the developer's letter. The town attorney said Bryan's decision not to release the letter was "an error."

"I never had a discussion with her about it," Wormuth said, referring to Bryan. "I don't tell her how to do her job. She's an independent elected official. She's responsible for responding to Freedom of Information requests. She's more than able to do that at her own discretion."

The letter was written by Larry Boni of Clifton Park, who is seeking to build a 133-bed memory care facility on a 81-acre site along Route 146. The project was the subject of a public hearing Wednesday before the Town Board.

In Boni's letter to Wormuth, dated April 13, he confirmed details of a telephone conversation he had days earlier with the supervisor regarding the "public benefits" Boni would give the town in exchange for having the project placed on the Town Board's "legislative agenda."

"You have requested that Boni Enterprises pays the town of Halfmoon an amount of $3,000 per bed for each of the 133 beds to be approved, or a total of $399,000," Boni wrote. "This we agreed to do. ... We are assuming that this charge is a lawful charge as permitted by the laws of the state of New York and the town of Halfmoon."

Wormuth said she never asked Boni to pay $3,000-per-bed in order to have his project move forward.

"I told him I was highly offended by that because I never told him he had to do that," Wormuth said. "That was an example of what Bob Marini offered for a subdivision he was doing ... He (Boni) asked for examples. ... We always leave it up to the applicant to decide what the public benefit should be."

Boni has since negotiated with the town to pay $75,000 to build a picnic pavilion at a nearby town park. He also is proposing sewer and highway improvements if the site is further developed.

Kevin Dailey, Boni's attorney, declined to comment on their negotiations with the town about the public benefits.